Settling themselves

[DW1978]

How can you teach your little one to settle themselves to sleep? Jax just cannot do it by himself and will fight going to sleep so badly. I've just had to rock him to sleep in his car seat cos not even rocking him to sleep in my arms works anymore. It's so tiring and frustrating, I've tried putting him down in his cot awake and staying with him but he goes mental and gets so upset that he gets inconsolable. The only times he'll nap in the day is in the car seat in the buggy or in the car or on the boob feeding. Last night bedtime was just as bad, Jax totally lost it with both me and dh and cried for absolutely ages while we tried to get him to sleep.

He's probably getting cross and over tired but I don't know how to settle him.

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[Amy_J]

i didn reallyt do self soothing till my lo was a bit older, as i loved all the cuddles etc etc and luckily my lo was quite good at going down awake and just dropping off himself........


could you put something of yours in his bed with you so he can smellyour scent??? also we used to heat up the moses basket for half hour with a hot water bottle, so it was nice and cosy.....

also...do you have a light show???

when i started to leave lo alone in cot i used to do bath, bottle, dummy routine, and then put his light show on for 20mins which seemed to work.....im not sure what else to suggest! xx

 

[DW1978]

Not, we don't have a light show. We do have a mobile which I tried putting on with and without music but that didn't work at all.

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[Franna75]

There are some good tips on here http://www.boswellbunch.com/simone/Babies/Resettling_Tips.html

plus i use a dummy

The routine on the link works a treat now. Sleep really does breed sleep you just have to get the first few sleeps over with and it can take some listening to them cry which i know is heartbreaking.

It sounds to me that Jax is tired. At the same age as your LO Tom just went mental and i couldnt console him. I thought there was something terribly wrong with him it was so bad, then third or fourth time it happened I recognised the signs.

In a nutshell sleep for 1.5hrs, wake for 1.5hrs - i know its a pain and it rules your life, but its worth it, believe me

 

[tinks77]

Grace has a light show & music playing at night. During the day she just goes to sleep when she wants where she wants lol
If I need to get her off I will sway & rock her but only until she's getting drowsy then she goes down to get herself off

 

[Sarah13]

Def get a light show, Kynon really loves his too and it works! He's been difficult going down this week tho cos he's not well and needs rocking or cuddling all the time,so hope he goes back to normal once he's better!

 

[clairebear22]

Jack's light show keeps him awake the little mokey! lol He loves the music though.

Jack can self settle but goes to sleep within 2 mins of i rock him. I've just started dropping his 3am night feed from last night and once thats sorted then i'll start making him self soothe. I think i'll try with his day time naps first. He's done it a few times but it takes a good 20mins for him to fall asleep!

I don't really know what to suggest apart from something that smells of you in his bed.

Does he have a bath at night? We bath Jack at 8.30pm and by 9pm he's had a bath and is in bed for the night because the bath tires him out so much. Just a suggestion?! x

 

[Alexandra84]

We found that the couple of hours before you need them to sleep are really important. It seems to be really easy to overstimulate a baby so we have low lighting and have lo with us while having dinner with hushed voices and low lighting. Then I take LO up around 8 pm with blinds drawn and lights off and feed, change and do whatever is necessary for her to be comfy. Sometimes I sing something repetitive softly. Once LO looks relaxed I can either rock her to sleep or put her in the cot and lie next to her and hold her hand. If she starts crying I'll check the nappy and see if she's hungry otherwise i'll carry her around until she calms down and try again. The first time it took me 2h to get her to sleep but now two weeks later it can take as little as 10min. I use the same process for daytime naps if necessary.
The important points are a good wind down before, lack of light and not leaving her to cry in the cot (I don't want to create any negative associations with sleeping or the cot!) after that it's just persistence: if it's dark and boring then she can't stay awake indefinitely and eventually she'll learn to associate sleep with darkness and my presence might not always be necessary.
Don't know if that helps but that's what I tried